Thread: For honeymooning MARTIJ6-Part 2

Gdynia/Gdansk turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. We used the ship’s excursion, Gdansk on you own, which was well worth the money. The day we were there turned out to be rainy but that was really a blessing in disguise. We had no problem seeing everything we wanted as well as having one of the best meals of the trip. I didn’t write down the name of the restaurant but it’s one with indoor/outdoor dining right on the main pedestrian road. After entering the gate, it’s a couple of blocks down on the left. I highly recommend the mushroom soup. In fact, it is the best mushroom soup I’ve had in my life. In talking with some of the folk I work with, I found out Poland is famous for some special variety of mushroom that you can only obtain there. Anyway, the meal was wonderful and it was lovely to sit and people watch. We also visited the Town Hall, Artus Court, Neptune Fountain, and Golden Gate. We went inside St. Mary's church (largest brick church in Europe) and enjoyed the paintings, statues, carvings, etc. The bus trip back to the ship makes a brief photo stop at the Solidarity monument and also passes the President’s home. You also drive through Sopot, a Victorian-era seaside resort between Gdynia and Gdansk. On the bus, we had a really good guide (a young man who was attending college) who gave us many interesting details about the country. I believe the excursion was only $19 per person and it would have been a bargain at twice that amount.

Oslo was our last stop. The ship docks right across the street from a huge fortress. There are numerous city tour busses to grab at ½ the cost of the ship’s tours as soon as you get off the ship. We ended up going to the Viking Museum and Oslo highlights for $30 per person (ship’s excursion is $62). Our tour bus was a hop-off/hop-on, double-decker with pre-recorded messages that described the areas you were in. We really enjoyed this feature. I believe there was another bus every 15 minutes which made waits between stops very short and gave you more time to see the sights. We waited until we returned to the pier to explore the fortress. It turned out to have more to see than we had expected. Unfortunately, we were rather tired and only walked around the grounds and then went back to the ship. “So much to see, so little time”. That was the theme for the entire cruise.

The ship was docked and ready for passengers to leave by 6:30am in Copenhagen. We had a noon flight and could easily have made a 9:00am flight instead. We walked off the ship, gathered our luggage, and jumped into a taxi. The cost for 3 people was about $50 which was much less than the $40 per person cost of transfers from Princess. We had been told there would be a shortage of taxis but that was not the case for us. We were at the airport by 7:30am without any trouble at all. I spent months and months researching all of the ports of this cruise and it really paid off. Once you are on the ship, there isn’t any time to decide what you want to do (or can do) at each port. You should have made that decision, and reservations, before your departure date. This is the most port-intensive cruise I’ve ever taken but I enjoyed every minute of it. There were minor irritations but I didn’t let them bother me for a second. I wish I could do this same trip again next summer but I already have plans for seeing another part of the world.

Great review Pungo!

I give it ... two thumbs up and have already frubled Pungo!